Wikipedia

The history of Wikipedia is something that has its own Wikipedia page and why wouldn’t it? The “most popular wiki on the public web in terms of page views” surely rises to level of notability required for Wikipedia entries. If you’re interested in the long history of Wikipedia, I suggest that you check out that page and the talk page. If you’re interested in a short version – read on. If you’d […]

You’re teaching with Wikipedia; you’re thinking about teaching with Wikipedia – either way, here’s a list of useful resources. Is there something that you’ve found particularly helpful that I should add here? Let me know and I’ll get it up ASAP. Wikipedia’s “Welcome to Wikipedia,” School and University Projects page, “How to Use Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool,” “Education Case Studies,” and “Education Program Handouts.” Information on Wikipedia’s “Neutral Point of […]

Academics nationally and internationally are beginning to integrate work on Wikipedia into their courses; it is a great way to get students to think about public writing, the creation of knowledge, citation, and to hone a few digital authoring skills. Many of the faculty teaching “Feminist Dialogues on Technology” – the FemTechNet Distributed Online Collaborative Course (DOCC) that is running this year – are going to include Wikipedia assignments. Adrianne Wadewitz and I […]

I’ve had the pleasure of talking with new editors (I, myself, am relatively new) about Wikipedia editing, both at our WikiStorm event at THATCamp Feminisms this spring and via social media. In my academic circles, which includes a number of medieval and early modern scholars, it’s become pretty popular to edit pages. We have a lot of knowledge to contribute and I’m delighted to see so many people adding to […]

N.B. – this piece was written as an Op Ed in May. After unsuccessfully making the rounds of several major outlets, I’m publishing it here before it becomes too stale. As my first OpEd effort, this piece owes debts to Adrianne Wadewitz, whose work on this same topic inspired these thoughts, to Alex Juhasz and Jessie Daniels, who helped with drafting and editing, and Amy Guth and Audrey Bilger, who […]

I’m a new wikipedia editor. If I make it past the fourth day, I will have reached the status of “Established Editor” – apparently most people don’t make it that long. I feel a little bit like Atreyu approaching the Southern Oracle in The Neverending Story. I hope I don’t get zapped and I have a sense that there is something a bit mysterious about this test. But a couple […]